Cold Bridging and Insulation : the issues and solutions

muffler

Listen guys. Please dont encourage people who are advertising their wares here.

If they feel the need to advertise then they can bloody well pay for it the same as the legitimate advertisers here.

Green&Red

Folks, I'm looking for a solution to a problem, I'm drylining a house but can't dryline the kitchen because it cant afford to be replaced. How do i go about this problem of having one massive thermal bridge in the hottest room in the house?
I could see other problems in the bathroom, at the stairs if its at an external wall etc.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

sydthebeat

Green&Red wrote: »

Folks, I'm looking for a solution to a problem, I'm drylining a house but can't dryline the kitchen because it cant afford to be replaced. How do i go about this problem of having one massive thermal bridge in the hottest room in the house?
I could see other problems in the bathroom, at the stairs if its at an external wall etc.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

whats the wall construction??

why cant you deconstruct the kitchen, and reconstruct after drylining? they generally are modular units screw fixed to the wall, also the counter top should be completely removable

Green&Red

sydthebeat wrote: »

whats the wall construction??

why cant you deconstruct the kitchen, and reconstruct after drylining? they generally are modular units screw fixed to the wall, also the counter top should be completely removable

Solid wall, the counter could be removed but would require a fairly serious effort (& money) to reconstruct the kitchen, not viable at the mo

sydthebeat

Green&Red wrote: »

Solid wall, the counter could be removed but would require a fairly serious effort (& money) to reconstruct the kitchen, not viable at the mo

why???

are the units not modular and separate???

i could de-construct my kitchen at home in a couple of hours by myself.. .and im a desk jockey!!!!

the only real extra work is extending electrics and plumbing to suit...

Green&Red

No its an older kitchen
Even if i could i'd have the same problem of thermal bridging in the bathroom and at the stairs

sydthebeat

i suppose it shows that internal drylining is only suitable if completely gutting a building first....

external insulation allows for insulating while affecting the internal minimally...

the only thing i can suggest is consider each room as zones, and try to separate each room by use of good quality solid doors, and draught strip the hell out of them, in order to try to trap heat in each room, as opposed to allowing heat travel from 'warm' rooms to 'cold' rooms....

Green&Red

Ya but that leaves you with the problem of the kitchen being a warm zone and ur losing heat to external space. There must be some way of getting around it

sydthebeat

yes there is, externally insulate....

Green&Red

They dont want external insulation, i had looked at it but no deal

sydthebeat

you cant insulate externally,
you cant insulate internally,
you cant de-construct and reconstruct the kitchen, stairs, bathroom...

is this work being done in order to access a grant?

Green&Red

Its being done because there is a grant, they dont want the external insulation, they know dry lining and what it does and want it, no talking to them about anything else. I'm just giving them a hand, and i'm worried about the problem of there being external walls that are not insulated

sinnerboy

Don't over complicate things .
I drylined my kitchen / diner about 2 years ago - to the diner part only . So the kitchen is not insulated and won't be untill I can replace it . No biggie .

sydthebeat

Green&Red wrote: »

Its being done because there is a grant, they dont want the external insulation, they know dry lining and what it does and want it, no talking to them about anything else. I'm just giving them a hand, and i'm worried about the problem of there being external walls that are not insulated

Ok,

Firstly, I would simply explain to them that undertaking this work under the situation youve described is not economical. They cannot afford to do the job properly so they should not undertake the work at this stage.

Secondly, what they are trying to do WOULD NOT comply with the requirements for the grant anyway (assuming this is the home energy savings grant). In order to comply the first measure of internal insulation is "Measures used to achieve the internal insulation of walls can include composite insulated dry-lining boards or any other approved system where insulation achieves a full coverage of insulation across the wall."

your clients cannot achieve a full coverage if they are not willing to remove kitchen stairs etc..

Green&Red

That was what i was looking for a solution to, the full coverage, theres no real point in dry lining half the room, with or without the grant.

Unfortunately they're no my clients

At least not the paying variety!

sydthebeat

There is no other options at this time unfortunately.....

as SB says, dryline what you can, but its pointless drylining part of a wall.

sinnerboy

Depends on context I suppose . In my case the rear elevation , is approx 2/3 dining + 1/3 kitchen . The kitchen is behind an archway so there is a visual break between the two spaces .

The dining area is a lot more comfortable than before dry lining - the inner surface of the the drylined walls don't absorb radiant heat from the noggin' as you watch tv any more .

And so far the only mushrooms in the kitchen are the ones I get from Tesco's . We do open the windows when cooking so condensation is not allowed to build up excessively.